Starting a New Nature-Based School: Plans, Partnerships, & Devilish Details

$27.00

An on-demand webinar to help make your school dream a reality! 

Goal: To help you be successful in opening a new nature-based school or program by answering key questions to ask before embarking on writing a business plan, components of a business plan, and tasks to complete between business planning and opening your doors. 

Duration: 1 hour

Please note this download is included in The Grove library! Not a member? You can join The Grove here to access this resource & more.

Given the nature of digital downloads, all sales are final and cannot be refunded. 

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An on-demand webinar to help make your school dream a reality! 

Goal: To help you be successful in opening a new nature-based school or program by answering key questions to ask before embarking on writing a business plan, components of a business plan, and tasks to complete between business planning and opening your doors. 

Duration: 1 hour

Please note this download is included in The Grove library! Not a member? You can join The Grove here to access this resource & more.

Given the nature of digital downloads, all sales are final and cannot be refunded. 

An on-demand webinar to help make your school dream a reality! 

Goal: To help you be successful in opening a new nature-based school or program by answering key questions to ask before embarking on writing a business plan, components of a business plan, and tasks to complete between business planning and opening your doors. 

Duration: 1 hour

Please note this download is included in The Grove library! Not a member? You can join The Grove here to access this resource & more.

Given the nature of digital downloads, all sales are final and cannot be refunded. 

Dreaming of starting a school? Confident in early childhood education, but less confident about the business side of things? 


If you can handle young children but aren’t so sure about some adults–like architects, attorneys, licensing authorities, potential landlords, and prospective partners, this on-demand webinar is for you!

Based on our experience as nature-based school planning consultants, we will address the most common questions and roadblocks to starting your own school. This will include, but not be limited to, questions such as: 

🌱 Should my business by a for-profit or nonprofit? 

🌱 Should I consider partnering with someone? 

🌱 How do I find a site? 

🌱 How do I ensure the program is full?

If you’re ready to make your nature-based school a reality and stop struggling with fear and doubts, you’re in the right place. You’re sure to leave with a clearer picture of the next steps to make your dream a reality!

About the Presenters

Rachel Larimore, Ph.D.

Dr. Rachel A. Larimore is an educator, consultant, speaker, researcher, and author. Her work focuses on the intentional integration of nature to support young children’s holistic development by learning with nature to expand their worlds and live rich, full lives. She has written multiple books including Establishing a Nature-Based Preschool, Preschool Beyond Walls: Blending Early Childhood Education and Nature-Based Learning, and Evaluating Nature: Evaluating Natureness: Measuring the Quality of Nature-based Classrooms in Pre-k Through 3rd Grade. Rachel is the founder and Chief Visionary of Samara Early Learning, an organization focused on helping early childhood educators start nature-based schools or add nature-based approaches into their existing program. Prior to founding Samara, she spent more than a decade starting and directing one of the first nature-based preschools in the United States.

David Catlin

David has devoted his 35-year-long professional career to the nature center and environmental learning center field. In that time, he worked for the Missouri Department of Conservation, helping to plan and launch the agency’s nature center network for six years and later running its Springfield Conservation Nature Center for a decade. He then signed on with the National Audubon Society oversaw start-up of 16 new nature center facilities across the country—evaluating sites, facilitating strategic and business planning, selecting architects and exhibit design teams, training staff, and serving as an in-house resource for problem-solving and question-answering. Since 2015, he has done similar work for nature centers across the U.S. through his firm David Catlin Consulting LLC.